A job interview is an opportunity for a hiring manager to get to know you as a prospective employee. Of course, it’s also an opportunity for you to vet the hiring manager and company. It’s cliché at this point, but the job interview is really a two-way street. If you don’t do your due diligence at this point, you may miss red flags that signal you’re getting yourself into a crappy situation. Here are a few watchouts to look for in your next job interview.
They ask you inappropriate questions during the interview.
“Inappropriate” can mean a lot of things here. There are questions that are illegal to ask in many places, like “Are you planning to have children?” and “What is your current salary?” Then there are questions that have absolutely no bearing on your ability to do the job, like “If you could be any animal, what would you be and why?” (I don’t buy the excuse that these questions “help us understand the candidate’s cultural fit” – there are way better questions for that).
Of course, nothing quite compares to Uber’s “Are you an a**hole?” question that you reportedly had to answer “yes” to, in order to land a job there in its early days.
If the hiring manager asks you these types of questions, it’s a signal that either A) they aren’t up to speed with employment law, B) they are up to speed, and are blatantly ignoring it, or C) they have no idea how to accurately assess candidates. All of these scenarios are red flags for you as a potential new hire.
The interviewer doesn’t make time for you to ask questions.
Like I said before, an interview is a two-way street. If the hiring manager does all the interrogating without making any time at the end for you to ask questions, that to me is a red flag. This type of behaviour says to me that the person is either making a power play, they’re insecure about their ability to answer your questions, they’re horrible at managing their time, or some combination of the three.
The interviewer treats you as if you are an inconvenience.
Disrespectful treatment can take many forms in an interview, all of which are clear red flags. If the person talks down to you, or otherwise treats you the way they might react if they stepped in dog poop while out for a walk, imagine how they’ll treat you once you sign all the paperwork.
I once read a post written for hiring managers, that talked about how the job interview is really when you’ll see candidates at their very best-dressed. They’re never going to look better than they do in the interview, so if they show up in a tattered old suit with loose threads and tears, that speaks volumes.
Well, guess what? The opposite is also true.
The way a hiring manager treats you in the interview process, when you owe them nothing and they have no power over you, speaks volumes about the type of treatment you can expect once you accept a role on their team. If they treat you well at this stage, it’s a good bet you’ll be treated well on the team.
If not… well, I’ve turned down job offers and offers for subsequent interviews on this basis. You NEVER have to tolerate being treated like an inconvenience.
The hiring manager gets upset when you try to negotiate your offer.
It’s common knowledge that, as a top candidate for a job, you’re going to negotiate your salary. Sometimes, companies will put their very best foot forward upfront, and that’s ok. We’re not talking about whether they give you more when you ask; we’re talking about how they react when you pose the question.
Are they respectful toward you? Or do they suddenly become very cold and standoffish? If you’re suddenly being treated like the enemy just because you advocated for yourself, I’d be wary of accepting any off on the table.
Your interviewer shows up excessively late or unprepared.
It’s one thing to be a few minutes late for an interview after coming off another meeting. But to show up 10, 15, 20 minutes late? That shows me you have absolutely no respect for my time, which tells me all I need to know about what it would be like to be a part of your team. No thanks, I’ll pass.
They ask you to do unpaid work for them.
My knowledge and skills don’t come for free. If you ask me to do work for you as a condition of receiving a job offer, that’s exploitation. I’ll gladly do it, but in addition to receiving work, you’ll also be receiving an invoice for my time.
Thankfully, I’ve never actually seen this happen in Canada, but I know it’s a too-frequent occurrence in the US. Remember: your time and skills are valuable, and if a company is asking you to offer them for free, that’s a huge red flag that suggest they’ll try to exploit you in other ways, should you accept an offer from them.
They pre-align salary expectations, then offer you less.
This one has happened to me in a past life, and it’s kind of mind-boggling. In your first conversation with the company, you’re asked to clarify your salary expectations, which you do. Then, when the job offer comes, the salary is $10k lower than the bottom end of the range you provided.
Really??
My expectation is that, if I give a salary range and the company chooses to continue engaging with me as a candidate, that somewhere in that range lies a price they’re willing to pay. If I receive an offer that’s below the low end of my range, it tells me that, again, the company is trying to see what they can get away with. Big flag.
Don’t let companies treat you like this. Know your worth relative to external market data, and refuse to settle for anything less. If a company tries to lowball you, I’d think long and hard before even trying to negotiate with them. Do you really want to have to fight tooth and nail for scraps just to try and get ahead?
Wrapping it Up
Thankfully, there are a great many companies with a ton of great people out there. Among them are the minority who, for whatever reason, think it’s ok to mistreat candidates and hires. By recognizing the red flags in today’s post, you’ll be better equipped to spot them and run the other way… before it’s too late.
